Pandemonium

Nico cracked his eyes open and looked around, hoping against hope to maybe find that he was back home and all of this was a bad dream.

But he was still in the same ornate dining room, with a long table and three people tied to its chairs on each side, swords hanging over their heads. Opposite him was Will, looking as perfect as always. There was only the tiny issue of the ropes around his shoulders and wrists and the golden sword hanging over his head. To Will's right was Leo and on his left was Meg. On Nico's right, opposite Meg, was Rachel and on his left was Piper.

The room had no windows. Just one door behind the head of the table and a fireplace opposite it on the other side. The walls were decorated with gruesome mosaics of torture and punishment. The colours were dull and dreary, but the decoration was immaculate and skillfully done.

The star of the room was clearly the dining table. It was made of black marble and had golden accents.

The table was filled with all kinds of edibles. The smell was intoxicating. It had initially made their stomachs growl to be fed. But now that they had seen how the contents were made, their empty stomachs threatened to vomit themselves out.

Just minutes ago or maybe hours ago or days ago (they had no sense of time in here) , Khione and Chrysaor had been inside the room.

The first time they came in, how long ago he didn't know, they had brought a young boy with them. He looked to be about 10 years old with jet black hair and light brown eyes. He was crying.

Khione told them he was a son of Hermes. The boy had been taken from his home, his mother killed before his eyes. Chrysaor's sword had still been glistening with her blood. That was the only time Nico and his friends had been spoken to.

Khione asked the boy for his name.

Little voice trembling, he had said, "Timmy."

Timmy was made to stand before the fireplace.

Chrysaor had placed the bloody sword into the fire and they had all watched as it turned hot.

Timmy though, had started to shiver. Khione's snow had started to encroach on him from the tips of his toes.

None of their protests could be heard over the screams of the terrified boy. His tears had made pools of ice beside his feet.

Within minutes, Timmy was covered in a sheet of ice.

As soon as his screams were frozen in place, Chrysaor had taken the sword out of the fireplace and swung it at the frozen boy.

Will, Rachel, Leo and Meg had all vomited at the gruesome sight.

The two of them had taken what was left of him and put it in a bag.

They came back minutes or maybe hours later, this time with plates full of cooked meat.

Polybotes was with them.

They walked to the dining table and stood with their back to the fireplace, placing the dishes of meat before them.

The giant took a giant syringe from a pouch on his waist and filled it with a wave of his hand. The liquid glistened with a sickly green colour.

He then injected the poison into the cuts of meat. The meat turned a sickly shade of black at that.

Apparently, satisfied with the result, they left the plates of meat, as if letting it marinate and left the room.

Nobody spoke a word, but Timmy's cries echoed in the room, haunting it like a ghost.

Sometime later, the three returned.

As if whatever they had done so far hadn't been bizarre enough, each of them took one piece each and tossed it into the fire.

The flames burned the darkest black Nico had ever seen.

Gleefully smiling, then then said the most bone-chilling statement he'd ever heard.

"To swear loyalty to the King, we sacrifice this demigod and curse with poison this offering to His Royal Highness Prince Perseus of Atlantis, Olympian God of Demigods, Heroes, Earth, Poisons, Loyalty and Storms."

The flames seemed to turn a little blue.

-

Percy's brother declined lunch with the team.

He said there had been some concerning developments that he had to address immediately and couldn't waste another moment.

"Also. Don't let Percy or Apollo out of your sight. They're both grounded for two days."

Tri was clearly used to everyone doing as he said, so he didn't even bother to wait to see if they were ok with it.

Tony didn't like it, but there was nothing he could do about it either.

Percy and Apollo decided to take lunch in the guest room. Percy had taken ill again and needed rest.

The rest of the team sat for lunch.

"So......" Clint began. "Quite a couple of days we've had."

"I think their names are in code."

Everyone looked at Natasha.

"I ran a quick search. One of their parents is supposed to be famous and they were clearly trying very hard to call each other only by their nicknames. So I ran a search for a set of siblings with names beginning with or having the same letters as in their nicknames."

"Smart." Tony was impressed.

Nat gave him a side eye.

"Well, the best match was from Greek Mythology. Three children of Poseidon named Triton, Kymopoleia and Rhode. Perseus though, was a son of Zeus. Apollo too is a son of Zeus."

"Maybe they're all just fans of Greek Mythology." Clint said.

"It gets better though. Kymopoleia was married off to a hundred handed one called Briares because he was helpful in a war."

"Coincidence?" Clint tried again.

"So what? You think they're playing us?" Steve asked.

"Too early to tell. They were all pretty straightforward and sincere. But there are things that don't fit."

"Like?" Bruce asked.

"Apollo is supposed to be his stage name, something he adopted when he started his music career. But they talk as if it's his actual name. Besides, they've known each other since they were teenagers."

She had definitely given them quite a bit to think about.

"Did you get Friday to run face recognition on them?" Tony asked.

"Yes. No matches. It's like they do not exist at all."

"Sir." Friday interrupted their conversation. "I am sorry to interrupt, but there are two new visitors in the lobby and a growing crowd of reporters outside the building."

-

The two visitors were apparently Apollo's siblings.

They were led up to the floor where Apollo and Percy were staying. The Avengers met them there.

There was a brown haired bright eyed man dressed like a delivery guy and a woman with dark brown hair and dark eyes who was wearing a silver parka.

Ofcourse they were gorgeous too. What was with these people? They all looked like supermodels.

They introduced themselves as Jake and Diana, and requested a private audience with the two in the room.

The woman, Diana, acted like the men in the group didn't exist at all. She resolutely looked at and addressed only Natasha and Pepper. Jake though, seemed like a chill guy.

They were shown into the room and as soon as the door closed, Natasha said, "Diana is the Roman counterpart of Artemis, who is Apollo's twin sister. But Jake is a normal name."

"Look, Nat." Bruce said. "I'm not saying they aren't weird, but maybe they really are all just normal people. And maybe Percy's siblings really do have different normal names and always go by their nicknames. It's not like they're causing trouble. They're all just concerned for their brothers."

Clint was the one who added to that. "Nat, I know you don't believe in coincidences. But even I have to agree, maybe you're being a little obsessive over this." Nat looked ready to protest but Clint continued in a rush."But I can't deny I'm curious too. Why don't we try and listen in through Friday?"

Steve and Bruce started protesting at that. And Tony knew that it was a gross invasion of privacy but what they won't find out won't hurt them right?

Steve and Bruce were outvoted.

They retreated to the meeting room and got Friday to relay the conversations live.

"But Artie, this should not have happened in the first place." Apollo was whispering to his sister, as the three of them stood in a corner away from the bed where Percy was asleep.

"But it has, and now you two need to find a way to pull through." Diana was whispering back.

"How much longer will he have to sleep?" Jake asked. He was looking between the other two and Percy on occasion, but otherwise was engrossed in his phone.

"For as long as his body needs him to. I need to find out why this is happening."

"Is that really what should be your priority here?" She reprimanded.

"Percy was poisoned, Artie. That's not even supposed to be possible."

"I'm asking you, what would Percy want you to do? He'd want you to find his missing friends. Not how he was poisoned."

"That's why I'm telling you and your hunters to search for them. Hermes can do it too." He pointed at Jake and the other man nodded, not taking his eyes off the phone. "He has connections everywhere. You can search for them while I try to find out how to protect him."

"What about Meg?"

A few beats of silence.

Apollo then turned away from his siblings and started walking back to Percy's bedside.

"You're right." He paused again. "He'd be so disappointed in me for even suggesting it."

"Now what do you intend to do?" His sister was walking up to him.

"Percy will want us to search for them. I'll stick by him. I'll need to take care of him because he won't take care of himself."

"I know he apologized but is he treating you well?"

"He's the sweetest, Artie. You know that."

"He surely wasn't for the last five years."

"Can you blame him?"

"I certainly won't blame him for what happened. But it was definitely his fault that the two of you wasted five years without at least give it a try. He was moping for too long."

"I'd say he was well within his rights to mope for as long as he wanted."

"But he hurt you."

"I chose to be hurt, Artie. He doesn't even like me that way."

"You must be really blind if you can't see how much he wants you."

"He really doesn't, Artie. Why else would he have been so upset about what happened?"

"Apollo. The only reason he was upset was because his father decided everything for him. Perseus is a very independent person, and has issues with authority and that should not have affected the way he interacted with you. But it did, and that's what I'm upset about."

"We've been having this conversation for years now, and you know what I have to say to that." He shook his head. "Let's do something productive instead?"

"You two might have to deal with the media sometime soon." Jake cut in.

"What?" Apollo sounded very confused.

"The media is going crazy about your latest videos. There's one from where you're fighting with Percy in a parking lot and then there's another one from inside this building where you're screaming for them to let you see him. You're even claiming you're a doctor."

"That's because I am a doctor."

"We know that. The people don't."

"So, what do we do now?"

"I don't think there's much for you to do. The netizens are having a field day. Check this out." Jake said and showed Apollo something on the phone. They couldn't hear much, but it sounded like an interview.

"I know that voice." Clint said, and pulled out his phone, probably to try and find said interview.

"Ugh." Apollo said, "do we have to make a public statement about this?"

"I don't know." Jake said. "It's funny watching all the crazy theorists. But you might want to put a damper on it before the rumours get too close to home. Father might use that as an excuse to ground you for centuries."

"Percy and I'll look over it once we get time. We're probably going to put this on the back burner for now. We've got more pressing matters to look into." He cast a long glance at Percy's sleeping form.

"And, Apollo? You two might want to look into this." His sister handed him what looked like a piece of paper. "Make sure father doesn't know that I told you this. The only reason I got to know was because the messenger arrived when I was talking to him."

Apollo returned it to her after glancing at it for a few moments.

"I'll tell Percy. We'll probably move out of the Tower by this evening. There's only so much filtering you can do with your talks. And Percy will want to ready the camps for what's coming."

His siblings nodded at that.

They were leaving when his sister paused at the door and said to him, "And brother, we told them our names were Diana and Jake."

Apollo laughed at that. "How original. Fred is still better."

"You only did that to amuse Percy."

"And I'll do it again."

"Be careful brother." Her tone turned surprisingly soft at that.

"When am I not?"

-

While the team definitely felt a little guilty about spying on the private conversation. They had gained some crucial information from it.

Apollo's siblings had used fake names. But Apollo hadn't known about it until the conversation ended, so he had been calling them by their actual names or nicknames during their conversation, and that gave them two names: Artie and Hermes.

A quick search told them that the Greek God Apollo had a twin sister Artemis. They have a half-brother named Hermes.

Even Tony had to admit now that something was indeed going on with them. These weren't mere coincidences.

A new theory had started taking shape.

Maybe none of them were using their real names. Percy, they couldn't be sure of, because he has a very legitimate birth certificate with his name on it. The others didn't seem to exist on paper, and maybe that's because they were all using code names.

A crime syndicate was the most likely explanation. The head of the chain would be Zeus. Then Poseidon would be one of his partners. They are obviously rich and influential because of all the camp stuff that Percy told them about. There is also obviously a lot of tension among the partners and their supposed 'children'. Percy might've once been with Zeus and then shifted loyalties to Poseidon because of whatever incident they keep referencing to.

It might've been a mission gone wrong or something. But Percy and Apollo probably got in a fight and then Percy split from Zeus's side and joined Poseidon's. Apollo and Percy might've been close friends and that changed after the 'incident'.

The team guessed that most of what they talked about might've been in code. Even the marriage part. It probably was a reference to murder or something. They couldn't be sure. But that would make the most sense when all of it was taken into account together.

But whatever they had discovered, they kept to themselves and came to a mutual consensus to not let it affect their behaviour towards their friend. Because, if there was one thing they were sure of, it was that Percy was a good man, and a good friend. They would help him first and ask questions later.

It took them a couple of hours to theorize and then go about their works for the day.

Apollo and Percy rarely came out of their room. They didn't spy on them again.

The team did not disturb them in any way all afternoon. Tony knew that it had more to do with guilt at infringing their privacy more than the need to help their friend recover.

-

Apollo watched as Percy twitched in his sleep. He had fallen asleep sometime after they had talked about the missing demigods. Whatever was happening to him was draining his energy a lot.

Percy had slept through Artemis and Hermes' visit.

When he woke up, Apollo filled him in on all that he had been informed about.

They were now trending all over social media.

And Thor was coming to their realm.